Mahatma Gandhi`s Self-Sufficiency Concept
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relations with the neighbor countries. Gandhi wanted to have a society
where we have better relations with our neighbors, relations base first of all
on truth which means first of all on trust of each other. A relationship based
on truth means trust for one another and unless you have trust you can’t
have a society. A real meaning of the society is one on which every member
depend on the rest of the world. Gandhi’s idea was the smaller unit working
in the service of the larger unit and the larger unit taking care of the smaller
unit as the same time combine harmoniously with each other. That was
Gandhi’s self-sufficiency. Gandhi’s self-sufficiency also looked upon the
present world with conflict. And here he said about decentralized society
even the present context it means more of security. You can bomb cities
like Bangkok or Bombay or Delhi easily and destroy millions of people but
you can’t bomb thousands or hundreds of thousands of villagers, too
expensive even the present sense of ideology and defense finance. It’s
impossible to bomb decentralized society. So decentralized society gives
you security which is not available in a centralized society. That began
today. You don’t have to go even for the future about it, but his ideas were
based on the past, were realistic for the present, and it shows the ways for
the future. In Hind Swaraj of which you have been celebrating the hundred
of century, anniversary this year and also the next one, it was written 99
years ago just begun in this year, and in that idea Hind Swaraj, he was also
giving his such foresight. Gandhi seemed to be much more relevant than his
own days. Before in the past he seemed applicable, say perhaps to India
because India was a slave country. So Gandhi showed the way of fighting
without weapons. But he had the great weapon of Satyagraha with him
which was love force, truth force and soul force but that was relevant to
the past. Today we have to use these three forces of truth which put into
social context, means justice. Peace with justice is worth. Truth applied to
society means peace with justice that would be one. Love is non-violent